Aqueduct: Long River the one to beat in Evening Attire

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Long River appeared to have done enough last fall to have earned a trip to south Florida this winter. But his connections – owner Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Darley Stable and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin – haven’t shied away from developing a good horse in New York at this time of year. Thus, Long River will be the horse to beat in Saturday’s $100,000 Evening Attire Stakes at Aqueduct.

Long River, a son of multiple Grade 1 winners A.P. Indy and Round Pond, was one of eight horses entered in the Evening Attire, run at 1 1/16 miles. However, Saratoga Snacks, the 3-1 second choice, was cross-entered in Sunday’s $75,000 Whodam Stakes for New York-breds and is likely to run there.

Long River was kept in New York last winter, where he raced three times over the inner track. He won a maiden race Dec. 15, 2012, then was a troubled fourth in the Grade 2 Jerome before finishing last in the Grade 3 Withers. He came out of the Withers with a knee chip that was surgically removed. In three starts since his return, he has a second and two wins, including a two-length score in the Time for a Change Stakes going a one-turn mile over the main track Dec. 1.

“I was shocked the day he got beat in the ‘a-other-than,’ I thought he was going to win by four or five,” McLaughlin said, referring to a Sept. 22 race at Belmont. “Maybe Irad [Ortiz Jr.] learned a little bit about him that day. The stakes last time he was impressive. He’s a really nice horse. He can do about anything – lay close or come off of it. We’ll see how it goes; he has improved a lot with the time off.”

Ortiz will ride Long River from the rail.

If Saratoga Snacks does scratch to run Sunday, Long River’s main rival figures to be Cease, one of two horses entered by trainer David Jacobson, each of whom he claimed in 2013 for $100,000. Cease finished ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon on Nov. 1 but bounced back with an eye-catching 9 1/2-length victory when offered for the optional-claiming price of $62,500 over the inner track Dec. 31.

“We freshened him up, we did everything we would to any horse coming off a bad race to get him right, and we wouldn’t have run him for six months if he wasn’t right,” Jacobson said. “If he runs the race he ran the other day, I don’t see who can beat him.”

Jacobson also sends out Don Dulce, a horse who has run second in three consecutive stakes including a neck loss to Jonesy Boy in the Queens County here Dec. 14.

Jonesy Boy, trained by Kelly Breen, is back in this field looking for his fifth career win in seven starts.

Percussion, 2-1 when fourth in the Queen County, is 12-1 on the morning line for the Evening Attire. His trainer, Todd Pletcher, is adding blinkers to the 6-year-old gelding’s equipment.